The Secret Life of Shiranui Kyou
by 14Phantom
Summary: You know, life was pretty 'good' when foreign demons weren't running around Japan. Life was almost 'fun' when women didn't complicate things. Most of all, life was completely 'normal' when dead people stayed dead. Related to Hanashobu and Exotic Flower. A present day story about how the Oni might be roughing it.


**Right, I'm back. =3= I guess letting go of my fanfiction addiction is harder than I thought. **

**However, I am working on something of my own that I really, really want to publish. Eventually. This is stress relief from bending my mind out of shape on the sci-fi genre. **

**AS SUCH, I don't know if this'll have a regular update schedule, yet. I have the first six chapters planned out and a general idea of what will be going on **_**generally**_**. I hope you readers will enjoy reading it as I've been enjoying writing it, so far.**

**Check out Hanashobu and Exotic Flower, or just role with it. You could review and ask me to post character information on my profile page ;D**

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The Secret Life of Shiranui Kyou

Graduating and Chasing Carrots

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I tapped my foot to the rhythm of pop music coming from the clothing store up from the small coffee shop. For a Friday afternoon in March, the mall was pretty laid back. The cashier at the front was eying me expectantly. I hadn't ordered anything yet.

Ookawa Yuuya, an Oni from one of the remaining lines of noble purebloods, was never on time. She'd said to meet up at two o'clock; I came at two thirty. It was ten to three now and I hadn't so much as gotten a text from her.

If there was something, anything, I'd learned in the past year that I hadn't learned in two centuries . . . it'd probably be patience.

I leaned back in my chair, peeking down the mall strip. In the sparse crowd, Yuuya's mane of cobalt blue hair looked windblown; her bangs sticking up in pieces. She entered the coffee shop, checking our preferred table for me. Nodding (not apologetically) to me, she stepped up to the counter.

"Medium vanilla bean coffee – two sugars, no cream – and a large strawberry shake."

She paid by card and brought the drinks down. It was a rule between us; arriving late meant paying.

"What's up? That was a personal worst score."

She slouched in her chair. "My father is being very persistent about my becoming engaged to a foreign demon from France. A Monsieur Desrosiers, I believe."

"Didn't we have enough trouble with foreign demons last year?"

"That's exactly why the Elders think fostering relationships with them will be good." She shook her head. Her opinion on the whole matter was pretty clear: uninterested. "The real problem is he wants him to attend my graduation ceremony."

"Graduation ceremony?"

She scowled at me. "Yeah, I am a high school senior,"

Being two Oni, we generally didn't talk about age and stuff. Wasn't a big need to. Admittedly, I hadn't thought she was quite that young—and I'd known her for close to a year.

"It's not like his attending your graduation ceremony will be a big deal." It was just a formality. He'd probably say his congratulations and then leave. "Haven't you had suitors before? I'm sure you have, and you're still single, so what chance does one more have?"

She fixed me with her turmeric orange eyes, daring me to say that again. "I want you to attend my graduation ceremony."

"I don't do suits."

"Yes, you do. You're coming to my graduation ceremony to deter the French man."

Oh yeah, I could do that. One look at my ripped muscles and dashing good looks would send anyone running. "Your old man picked him out, right? I don't think a demon of high status is going to be 'deterred' by a washed up Oni."

"Maybe not, you certainly do not look threatening," she mocked, slurping her shake and blushing. She thought that was the single most embarrassing thing in the world. "He's five foot four and looks forty five."

I laughed. She was five foot six and refused to go without her heeled boots or sandals. "I'm what, two hundred?" and almost five nine. That was a descent height for an Oni of my time. Kazama was about the same, and I didn't count Amagiri. He was a freak.

She kicked my shin under the table as I brought my cup of coffee to my mouth. I burned my tongue and spilt coffee over the rim.

"You're going to my graduation if I have to rent you a suit myself."

* * *

I made it back to my apartment by seven. The three-story block was a combination of crumbling plaster and wooden doors, two windows per individual apartment. It came with a bathroom and the plumbing worked eighty percent of the time. With my salary, I could pay rent and eat two decent meals a day.

Taking the steps two at a time, I climbed to the top floor. It might not have smelled the best during the summer but opening the windows usually solved that problem.

The door jammed when the humidity was high too, though it wasn't something that I worried about. The old lady in the apartment over asked me to force hers open sometimes.

I opened the door, forgetting if I had or hadn't locked it. Wasn't anything to steal inside anyways. The mini fridge was the one thing _worth_ stealing and even then, it was only of yard sale value

The door mowed over a pair of sneakers, pushing aside another. I considered turning around and leaving again.

Sitting at the wobbly old zataku table on my two available cushions were Tsubaki Takamaru and Agano Kaname. Both were drinking canned coffee from the vending machine in the apartment lobby.

Kaname hadn't worked as my partner more than twice since he had recovered from his broken leg. Instead, he had taken on a more professional countenance, spiky gelled hair tamed. Last I heard he'd been doing a lot of negotiation between Japanese and European demons.

Tsubaki Takamaru, formerly a bona fide human, was a demon made so by the consumption of Fujiwara Maria's blood. We (Ren, Maria, and I) had tried to keep that secret but obviously, it hadn't worked out. He was doing better than he had initially, only that still wasn't enough for the dark circles around his eyes to fade.

He had one elbow on the table, the other on his knee. He looked half-asleep, auburn red hair hanging in his eyes.

"What happened now?" I wasn't a pessimist; it was seriously that bleak when these two were together that I had to ask.

"The Agano are sending me on a diplomatic mission to Paris. As such, they're officially assigning you Tsubaki Takamaru as your partner, indefinitely."

I could count on Kaname to get to the point. He and his father had that in common. Hard to imagine both being directly related to Kazama.

Takamaru didn't seem particularly bothered by that. So far, he hadn't complained about the workload the Agano were forcing on him. He hadn't quit his job as a bicycle courier of 'goods and gossip' either.

I figured part of the reason might have been he was glad that the Agano hadn't destroyed him as a deviant human or punished Ren and Maria. With all the trouble the Incubus Reginald Fairbairn caused in the months before they must have been too busy to dole out a punishment. Either that or Ren had pressured his little brother, leader of the Agano.

"Alright, bye, have fun in Paris." I grabbed a beer from the fridge before sitting down with them. "So we just keep doing what we've been doing?"

Takamaru blinked and yawned weakly. Kaname gulped down the last of his coffee, stood, then stepped back into his shoes.

"Good riddance!" I called after him.

"Same to you, Shiranui-san."

He'd been a sort of probation officer for me these last few years. I could say many things about Kaname, and being an underachiever wasn't one of them. With a start I realized that was my position now; watching over Tsubaki Takamaru, technically an offender.

"Do you have anything to eat here?"

"What?" I complained. "Don't you have grub at your place? You're the one who's making all the money, not me."

He let his hand slip from his chin and plonked his head down on the zataku. "I can't go back to my place right now."

"Why the hell not? You better not ask to crash here," I had a bathroom, but only a single living and sleeping space, combined. It was stuffy enough living by myself.

"I can't?"

"No." I wouldn't mind trading apartments though. He had a fifty-inch television and satellite. "What's up?"

"There's this girl from the university who's noticed my strange behavior and appearance recently."

"And? Are you afraid of her somehow finding out you're slightly less than human?" I really doubted that. He'd have to do something bizarre for any normal person to conclude he had transformed into a demon.

"No, it's just she's so concerned and won't leave me alone and . . ." he mumbled and lifted his head, a red print across his brow.

"You still have vampiric urges," I guessed. Not a guess, really, I knew.

He preened his eyebrows with his thumb and index finger, and then effortlessly squashed his coffee can flat. Behind his drawn lips were sharper than normal canines, held in check by the silver rings at the base of each.

"There are some things I could live without in this situation."

"Sucks, man." I examined the aluminum disk. "How much does it cost to rent a suit?"

He chuckled, the tips of his teeth showing. "Yuuya has you chasing carrots."

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**So, when I was writing this I got up to get some juice from the fridge. There was no juice so I opened the freezer for ice cream, only, both the fridge and freezer doors were open and I caught my middle finger in between them. T.T It hurt.**

**Review please!**


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